Dundas Minerals all set for maiden drilling at Jumbuck nickel and Kokoda gold prospects
Dundas Minerals managing director Shane Volk said the discovery of the conductive anomalies was a “testament to the company’s exploration methodology”.
Junior explorer Dundas Minerals (ASX: DUN) is set to commence a maiden drilling program this weekend at the historic Jumbuck nickel and Kokoda gold prospects in Western Australia’s prolific Albany-Fraser Oregon.
Impact Drilling has been contracted to carry out the work and has confirmed its rig will arrive on site within the next few days.
At Jumbuck, Dundas plans to follow up on historic rotary air blast drilling to a depth of 22 metres.
Bottom-of-hole assays from a 2m composite sample reported anomalous nickel (at 5,490 parts per million, or 0.55%) and a broad zone of anomalous sulphur was reported in the surrounding holes.
Dundas has re-processed aerial electromagnetic survey data which partially covers the Jumbuck prospect and has identified a late-time conductive anomaly to the south-west which remains untested by drilling.
The company is aiming to complete 15 initial reverse circulation holes to a maximum depth of 150m, and an additional 15 holes as part of an approved work program.
The additional holes will be drilled if positive results are obtained from in-field analysis of drill hole samples via handheld xray fluorescence and drill hole logging.
Kokoda drilling
Dundas is also planning 15 initial holes at the Kokoda prospect plus an additional 15 pending positive results from drill hole logging.
Previous exploration at the prospect identified a 4 kilometre gold-copper trend which the company said warrants further investigation at depth.
Shallow aircore drilling to a maximum 48m depth was completed in 2012, with an average drilling depth of 20m for all other drill holes.
Assay results from maiden drilling are expected to be available by February.
Project location
The Jumbuck and Kokoda prospects sit within the wholly-owned Dundas project which comprises 11 exploration tenements over 1106 square kilometres of the Albany-Fraser Oregon.
The project is located nearby to the world-class Tropicana gold mine (owned by AngloGold Ashanti, ASX: AGG) and the Nova nickel mine (Independence Group, ASX: IGO).
Dundas said previous exploration within its project area was mostly undertaken prior to Nova’s discovery in 2012.
It was mainly focused on gold and base metals and comprised soil and calcrete sampling, shallow aircore or rotary air blast drilling, plus a limited amount of reverse circulation work.